Connectivity to the Internet could be more important in this era, compared with access to electricity in the past century, to build an inclusive digital economy and society, according to Jack Ma, co-founder and executive chairman of Alibaba Group Holding.

“Today, if we are not connecting any country [or] if you don’t let your people connect to the Internet, it’s worse than last century not letting them connect to electricity,” Ma said on Monday during a live-streamed panel discussion on digital cooperation with American philanthropist Melinda Gates and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at UN headquarters in New York City.